HC to hear golf club land lease renewal issue today

The Punjab and Haryana high court would on Thursday hear the arguments of the Chandigarh administration as well as the Chandigarh Golf Club (CGC) as to why mediation between them on club's land lease renewal issue initiated by justice Kuldeep Singh (retd) did not come out to be fruitful.

The petition filed by the CGC over the lease renewal issue of around 132 acres club land came up for hearing before the division bench headed by justice SK Mittal on Wednesday, which was adjourned for arguments on Thursday.

Earlier on April 28, the division bench comprising justices Surya Kant and Lisa Gill had recused from hearing the case.

The CGC had petitioned the high court last year challenging the UT administration's decision of enhancing its lease amount enormously and charging of `9.27 crore as rent, including interest for five years (March 2008- 2013).

As per the earlier lease, which was for 20 years (1988 to 2008), the annual lease amount of the CGC, established on August 25, 1966, was `1 lakh. However, after the revision of lease amount in November last year it reached up to ` 1.61 crore annually.

In a bid to resolve the ongoing lease tussle with the CGC, the UT administration had in June made a proposal to reduce the lease amount by `36 lakh, making it to `1.25 crore annually.

Previously, the court had appointed justice Kuldip Singh (retd) as the mediator who had given suggestions to both parties for `36 lakh per year lease amount but that was opposed by the UT administration. Lastly, the court had ordered to decide the issue in the court.